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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5037649" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 162: October 1990part 2/6Robotech, the new generation? Has it been that long? Ok then. The mind of the vampire: Nigel Findley, writing a horror article? No, say it aint so. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Another sign of the times here, as he encourages you to get inside the mind of your intelligent undead monstrosities, and play them as beings with plans, personalities, and quite possibly a degree of internal conflict about their status. Be they vampires, liches, ghosts, spectres, or even lesser undead like ghouls, the way they come to terms with their new lifestyle should vary very much depending on what they were and how they died. And as usual, he does a pretty good job of it, analyzing things both from the statistical capabilities of the various creatures, and their literary sources. They take another step towards the environment that will result in said monsters becoming the stars of the number 2 roleplaying game in the world. Yeah, this one really was pretty telegraphed in hindsight, wasn't it. Even more than those swishy antipaladins, people loooove da bloodsuckers. Bad boys, bad boys, who ya gonna call. So, um, yeah, this rocks, and is also moderately significant in the overall scheme of things. Go him. Hammer and stake: Call of Cthulhu continues to be one of the more popular non TSR games in the magazine, with an article for including vampires in the game. Rather a step back from the unknowable inhuman monstrosities investigators normally face here. But if you can get over that bit of cognitive dissonance, this is another pretty decent bit of articlage, giving them a fairly straight writeup with both the savage lesser vamps and the more intelligent and refined greater ones catered for. It's probably be a good idea to customise their origin and capabilities if you want them to be properly chilling. But it's certainly not useless, and it's another bit of variety in the magazine, so I have no objection to this. Out of the shadows: Tom Moldvay continues his slow progress through the entire undead listings and their mythological antecedents with three variants on the Shadow. He also fills us in on the weird editorial decisions that resulted in Shadows being undead in AD&D, but not in basic D&D. An initial decision inspired purely by DM sadism gradually acquired mythic resonance and a special place in adventurers hearts. After all, temporary strength draining isn't as mean as permanent level loss, but it's still pretty scary mid battle, especially when you know what's going to happen if you lose. Once again, he's a font of fun facts, making this a lot more interesting reading than a set of straight bestiary entries. Skotos are evil spirits who rule rpg.net <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> They recover damage as they hurt you, which means fighting them is not simply a matter of outlasting them. Still, their craving for fresh blood can be used to lure them into making rash decisions. A good mid-level substitute for ghouls or wights. Sluagh are undead faeries, and a lot more interesting and idiosyncratic than the Changeling version. Appearing in massive hordes, they have very high XP awards for their HD, due to their combination of instadeath attacks, and the shadowesque ability to recruit you for the cause if they kill you. If you don't have an AoE blasty spell ready to go before you get to melee then things are likely to get very nasty. An excellent choice for if you want to play a storyline where entire settlements are being destroyed, and things are getting scarier each time. Ghost-stones are even more idiosyncratic still. Drawing upon transylvanian myth, if your shadow touches them, it gets trapped on them and they drain your life force through it. Brilliant, and one that'll be a real puzzler for players to figure out how to deal with. Your life or death will depend very much on tactical setup rather than raw power this time. These guys can definitely have places in my game. This selection isn't quite as great as last year's, but that's more a matter of quantity rather than quality. I'm very much looking forward to seeing him complete the collection over the next few years. Sage advice: Your talk on scale and chain mail was complete rubbish! ( Do you doubt Skip! Skip is the Sage! Do not doubt Skip's word, or Skip will not only destroy you, but your reputation as well. Skip has powerful friends. You'll get what's coming to you for this. )Did you think up the questions for your april fools issue? (No! Your insanity is more ludicrous than anything Skip could make up himself. Skip is The Sage, not some kind of jester! )Drinking enwatered PC's simply kills them? That is so unfair! (Only if you're playing a game with regular access to 9th level spells. You might want to think about your playstyle, as that is the problem here, not the rules of the game. So says Skip! ) Ninja can so pick pockets! Oriental adventures says they can! (No they can't! Skip calls shenanigans! You're a bunch of doodyheads.)You got the number of times dragons can breathe per day wrong (Oh man, Skip just can't win this month. Skip had better call time out before Skip gets even more humiliated. You may have won this time, but Skip will be back, just you see :shakes fist<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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